SAN BERNARDINO – A project to widen the 215 Freeway through the city has reached its midway point, officials said.

San Bernardino Associated Governments’ project kicked off in 2007 and is set to end in late 2013.

Project managers issued a statement last week that crews were halfway finished and the widening – which stretches between Orange Show Road and University Parkway.

“August marks a major milestone for everyone involved in the project as we have officially completed 50.5 percent of the work on the final two phases,” the statement read.

SanBAG – San Bernardino County’s transportation agency – launched the $723million, five-phase project because of the growth projected to hit the area in the next 20 to 30 years, agency officials said. When finished, the widened 215 should better serve a larger volume of motorists, officials said.

Construction crews have trimmed the project’s timeline, putting the completion of the project ahead of schedule, officials said. The end of the massive project is now a little more than two years away.

“It’s exciting,” said Mayor Pat Morris. “We have really moved this project into high speed.”

When the project first began, crews moved in sequence through its various phases. Now, Morris said, crews are working on the final phases all at the same time, a feat he called “an engineering jigsaw puzzle” that should allow the project to wrap up ahead of schedule.

“It will be done at the earliest possible time and it will be one of the finest freeways in any city in California,” Morris said. “SanBAG and Caltrans really hit the mark and are bringing the project in under budget.”

When finished, the newly widened 215 should allow more access to San Bernardino’s business communities both east and west of the freeway, something the original freeway didn’t allow.

“In 1959 when the freeway was built, all of the entrances and exits were to the east, which cut off the entire west side to economic development,” Morris said. “Now, we’re going to have those avenues of commerce open to the west as well as to the east.”

When the project is finished, Morris said he would like to see new businesses emerge to pull people off the freeway to shop, dine and stay in San Bernardino.

The impending completion of the project has “very good timing,” said Josie Gonzales, chairwoman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Having the road closures and construction crews disappear will give San Bernardino businesses an opportunity to thrive during a tough economy.

“I would like to see the business world, the manufacturing world and the commercial element look at what’s going on and want to be the first ones on the block to take advantage of the opportunity,” Gonzales said.

Though local politicians see the project’s upcoming completion as an economic shot in the arm, many commuters remain focused on the inconveniences the project has thrust upon them.

Cameron Walker, 27, is a student at Cal State San Bernardino, and he says the 215 Widening Project has made his commute to and from school more difficult, adding at least 20 minutes a day to his drive.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “Coming down (south) from the 210 (Freeway), you have to get off on streets and you have all of these people going to work and school. It’s like when the 10 (Freeway) used to get backed up before they opened to 210.”

Muscoy resident William Fanning, 42, drives up and down the 215 Freeway “two or three times” a day to his business. He didn’t mince words Friday when describing his commute.

“It’s been miserable,” he said. “They close too many exits and there are bottlenecks everywhere you go.”

But driving the freeway so often gives Fanning the foreknowledge of where the trouble spots will likely be every day.

“I know that thing like clockwork now,” he said.

But the news that the 215 project is nearing an end is giving some motorists the feeling that there’s at least a light at the end of the tunnel.